it is really something that we probably, president obama said, we'll never see again. >> john meacham, i was talking to my 10-year-old girl about nelson mandela, explaining about him, what he had done, the sacrifices he made, the way he changed this country and the world. i'm wondering, though, of course, my 10-year-old girl didn't know an awful lot about nelson mandela. and we won't even talk about my 5-year-old boy. he'll get it in years to come. what do history books write about this man? >> the last lines of the 20th century. he was arguably with john paul ii, martin luther king, he was someone without whom the world would be radically different and worse. while america mourns him today we should remember that america was not always with him. i think that's an important part of history. president reagan opposed the point signatures of sanctions in the 1980s against south africa. it was only in 1990 four years after mandela was released he was received by president bush. he was part of the complex cold war world. this is a more complicated history that the country of the united sta